'Why is it always deadly force?': Internet furious as Anthony Lowe Jr's mom Dorothy seeks justice for double amputee son
HUNTINGTON PARK, CALIFORNIA: The family of a double amputee who was shot dead by police as he tried to evade arrest is seeking justice. Anthony Lowe Jr, 36, was said to have previously lost his legs in another police encounter in Texas. The Huntington Park Police Department said officers were called to the scene after Lowe allegedly stabbed a person in an unprovoked attack.
“My son was murdered. I don’t want nobody to react on it. I just want y’all to get justice,” Dorothy Lowe, Lowe's mother, according to Cleveland 19 News. The confrontation between Lowe and the police was caught on camera by a bystander. The video shows him struggling to get away from police, holding a butcher knife in his hand.
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'He was not homeless, he was loved'
“They refuse to give everything we need to know what really happened to him,” his cousin, Ellakenyada Gorum, said. “He was not homeless, he was loved. And it’s sad, really sad, that they’re getting away from killing our African American people, just getting away with it. He was in a wheelchair. What more could he do? What more could he do?”
Police said the shooting took place after Lowe continued to threaten officers with the knife. “Be realistic about this, what could he have possibly done in a wheelchair?” Lowe's aunt, who was not named, said. “We want justice.”
Lowe's family and friends said they have not heard much from those investigating the case, including from the police department or the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “You guys knew your lives wasn’t in danger. He’s running on his limbs. How cold-hearted could they be?” Gorum said. “He got a strong family that loves him, so we want justice for our whole family,” his sister Yatoya Toy said.
'Shameful and embarrassing'
Social media users expressed their anger and devastation at the incident. "Shameful and embarrassing. How on earth can this be justified? What about crisis intervention? Couldn't wait him out?" one user commented on Facebook. Another said, "THROW THE BOOK AT ALL OFFICERS INVOLVED. JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL." "Why is it AlWAYS deadly force with us????????? don’t come saying nothing about no knife because even if he didn’t have it he would still be dead," wrote one.
"Everybody should know by now that the police are trained to kill, plain and simple," one user said, while another wrote, "NO EXCUSE FOR THIS VENGFULL, DISCUSTING BEHAVIER."
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.